A game device is a prop or piece of hardware that lives inside one room — the maglock on the final door, the reed switch on a drawer, the keypad on a puzzle, the RGB strip behind a panel. The Devices tab is where you add a room’s hardware, name it, and set how it solves objectives and resets between games.
Open the Editor, choose your game, and go to the Devices tab.
Game devices vs. system devices
This page is about hardware that belongs to one room — the props and locks in its puzzle flow. Gear that runs your whole location — lobby lighting, the open/closed sign, background music, schedule-driven hardware — lives in System → Devices instead. The connection a device rides on is shared, but the device itself belongs either to a game or to the system.
Connections come first
A device always talks to ARC through a connection — the bridge to a protocol or piece of gear (MQTT, Z-Wave, DMX, a Raspberry Pi, and so on). You add connections once, for your whole location, under System → Connections. Once a connection is in place, its devices become available to add here.
If you don’t see the device kind you expect when adding a device, the matching connection probably isn’t set up yet — add it in System first.
Device kinds
When you add a device, ARC asks what kind it is. The kind tells ARC how the device behaves on its connection.
| Device kind | Built on | What you configure |
|---|---|---|
| MQTT Device | An MQTT connection | A topic for the device. Basic mode is read-only; Advanced mode adds properties and commands so ARC can also control it. |
| PLC Device | A PLC (Modbus) connection | One Modbus address mapped to this device — read or write a coil or register. |
| DMX Device | A DMX connection | Map named channels to DMX addresses. |
| Z-Wave Device | A Z-Wave connection | Pick the node and value — contact sensor, motion, switch, dimmer, button, temperature, or humidity. |
| Zigbee Device | A Zigbee connection | Pick the paired device and a capability — button, power, brightness, color, contact, motion, temperature, and more. |
| Hue Device | A Hue connection | Choose a light, scene, or group from the connected Hue bridge. |
| OSC Endpoint | An OSC connection | Listen for or send OSC messages at an address. |
| Raspberry Pi | A Raspberry Pi connection | Bundle GPIO pins for digital input/output and PWM. Only games can add this kind. |
Each option stays greyed out until a matching connection exists — “Add an MQTT connection first,” and so on.
Devices that find themselves
Three kinds don’t appear in the Add device list at all. They show up on their own once they’re powered on and on your network, and you adopt them into the game from the device list:
- Bluetooth — a Bluetooth sensor or button (such as a Shelly BLU) seen by a Bluetooth Gateway.
- Kasa — a Kasa smart plug.
- Room mic — a room microphone.
Where to set the protocol up
The protocol setup for each kind — pairing a Z-Wave node, mapping DMX channels, adding an MQTT broker — happens once at the connection level. See System → Connections for adding each connection type.
Add a game device
The details differ by kind, but the shape is the same.
- Open your game and go to the Devices tab.
- Select Add Device, then choose the kind that matches your hardware.
- Select the connection this device talks through.
- Fill in the kind-specific details — a topic, a node and value, a Modbus address.
- Give it a clear name staff will recognize, like "Final Door Maglock" or "Safe Keypad."
- Set its solved and reset states (below), then save.
Each device opens in a drawer beside the list, and testing it happens right there — there’s no separate test window.
Solved and reset states
Two states make a device useful inside a game:
- Solved state — the value that means the puzzle is done (the lock reads “open,” the switch reads “closed”). You can link an objective to a device’s solved state so the objective auto-completes the instant the room is solved.
- Reset state — the value the device should hold at the start of a game (a maglock “locked,” a light “off”). ARC sends this saved value when the room resets, for any device flagged to reset automatically.
Reset and readiness flags: GRS, GSM, RST
Between games a room has to return to its starting state, and staff need to know when that’s done. ARC handles this with three flags you set per device. They appear as small badges — GRS, GSM, and RST.
| Flag | Badge | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Include in Game Reset System | GRS | The device counts toward the reset flow. It appears on the reset checklist and must be handled before the room is considered reset. |
| Include in Game System Monitor | GSM | The device counts toward Game Ready status and the room’s health checks. ARC watches it to decide whether the room is ready to run. |
| Reset automatically | RST | During a reset, ARC sends the device’s saved reset value for you — no manual step needed. |
A device can carry any mix of these. A maglock might be GRS + GSM + RST — it’s part of reset, it gates readiness, and ARC relocks it for you. A purely informational sensor might carry none.
Flag the game-critical devices
Make sure every device that must be right before a game — the final lock, the door sensor, the key prop — carries GSM so it gates readiness and GRS so it’s part of the reset. A game-critical device left off these flags can let a room report ready when it isn’t.
Device status
Each device shows a status badge so staff and builders can see its state at a glance: Active (connected and reporting), Idle (quiet), Pending (being set up or not reporting yet), Ignored (set aside), Error (not responding as expected), and Inactive (off). Where the hardware supports it, ARC also shows live telemetry — online/offline, last seen, battery %, and signal strength.
Resolve Error and Pending before a game
An Error or stuck Pending badge usually means a connection problem — a broker that’s down, a controller that’s unplugged, a device that’s lost power. Clear these before opening the room.
Putting a device on the control page
Every device drawer has a Show on control section — “Choose which controls staff can operate live, and how each one looks.” Nothing appears on the control page until you turn it on here.
Each of the device’s controls has an eye you switch on, or select Show all to turn on every one. Shown controls can be dragged into the order staff should read them, renamed to whatever makes sense in your room, and given a Control style — Auto, Toggle, Buttons, Single button, Slider, Segmented, or Color. Turn on Require confirmation for anything you don’t want fired by a stray tap; staff then have to press it twice.
You can also expose a reading as a display-only row — a live value with no button — so staff can see what a prop is doing without being able to change it.
Device assignments: the room’s own jobs
Some hardware doesn’t belong to a puzzle — it does a job for the whole room. The Device assignments button in the Devices toolbar opens a drawer that points this game’s existing devices at those jobs. Nothing in it configures a device; device setup and testing stay in the list.
Room sensors
- Temperature sensor — the sensor whose reading shows on the control page, with a Unit (Celsius or Fahrenheit) and an optional alert range: Too cold below and Too hot above.
- Door sensors — the sensors whose open/closed state shows on the control page.
Buttons
- Start button — a physical button in or near the room that starts the game.
- Help request — the button players press to ask for help.
Speech recognition (only when the Speech Recognition add-on is installed and enabled)
- Listen for help keywords and lock codes — off by default. When on, ARC listens on the microphone below for this game.
- Microphone — one microphone feeds speech recognition for this game. It can be a room microphone or a camera microphone; Automatic uses the first available room microphone.
Where to go next
- Objectives — auto-complete an objective from a device’s solved state.
- Panels — build a live panel for a puzzle or prop.
- Automations — react to a device or send it a command.
- System → Connections — add the connection a device rides on.
- Resetting a room — how the GRS flags drive the reset staff run between games.